TableJourney

Where to eat Skillet cornbread in Chattanooga

Cornmeal batter poured into a screaming-hot cast iron skillet for a shattering crust and tender crumb, the bread of the Chattanooga valley and the reason a cast iron town throws it a festival.

The story of Skillet cornbread

Cornbread is Appalachian daily bread, unsweetened in the Tennessee tradition and baked in cast iron because that is what the region made. Lodge Cast Iron has cast skillets in South Pittsburg, 30 miles from Chattanooga, for over a century, and the town stages the National Cornbread Festival, whose 29th edition in April 2026 crowned another skillet cook-off winner. Every meat-and-three in Chattanooga serves a wedge or a muffin of it beside the greens.

How to make Skillet cornbread

Serves: Serves 8

Ingredients

  • 300g medium-grind cornmeal
  • 1 tbsp plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 450ml buttermilk
  • 60g butter or bacon fat

Method

  1. Set a 25cm cast iron skillet in the oven and heat both to 220C.
  2. Whisk the cornmeal, flour, baking soda and salt; in a jug whisk the eggs into the buttermilk.
  3. Combine wet into dry with a few strokes; the batter should pour like thick cream.
  4. Drop the fat into the hot skillet, swirl until foaming, and pour the batter into the sizzle.
  5. Bake 20 to 25 minutes until the top is set and the edge pulls from the pan. Turn out crust-side up and cut in wedges.

Editor tip. Tennessee style means little or no sugar; if the batter does not audibly sizzle when it hits the skillet, the pan was not hot enough.

The editor picks for Skillet cornbread in Chattanooga are still in research. Meanwhile, see the Chattanooga signature-dishes index or the Chattanooga food guide.